Protestant Exiles from France/Volume 2 - Book Third - Chapter 11 - Section II
II. Portal.
This very honourable family is both Albigensian and Huguenot. It is memorialised in an interesting volume entitled “Les descendants des Albigeois et des Huguenots, ou Mémoires do la Famille de Portal” (Paris 1860). The city of Toulouse was French in its politics; but it had its own legislature and magistracy, independent of the King of France. It was governed by Capitouls — a corporation of civic dignitaries elected annually, the members of the retiring corporation being excluded from re-election for several years. On the 14th June 1204, a treaty between the city and the lord of a neighbouring castle is signed “Oldric de Portal, capitoul." From 1204 to 1423 twenty-one elections to the Capitoulate were in favour of the De Portal family. After the latter date the Inquisition was set up in Toulouse. In 1238 Raymond de Portal had removed to Nismes. But most of the Portals resided in Toulouse until 1463, when, in consequence of a great fire, many of them were dispersed. Jean de Portal is found established at Bagnols, in Lower Languedoc, at the end of that century. His elder son, Jehan, was sent by King Henry II. to the cradle of his race, as Viguier of Toulouse, in 1555. His kinsman, Bercnger dc Portal, chevalier, Sieur de la Pradellc, was then resident at Toulouse as Treasurer-General of Languedoc. Jehan fell a victim to a fanatical riot; his younger brother, Francis de Portal, is the ancestor of the modern branches of the family.
Of Berenger, Sieur de la Pradelle, it is recorded that he was commonly called General Portal, because Treasurer-General to the King. In 1573, although the desolations of the St. Bartholomew massacre seemed to have extinguished Protestantism, he died confidently persuaded that there would again be a Reformed Church in Paris. And he left a tangible proof of his conviction by bequeathing a sum of money for the benefit and maintenance of the Protestant Church of Paris (pour le bien et soustien de l’Eglise de Paris). In 1591 Du Moulin, having accepted the title of Pasteur of Paris, claimed and received his salary out of this Portal Bequest.[1] At the time of the Revocation of the edict of Nantes the chief of the Portals died a martyr’s death; he was the fifteenth in the direct line of descent from Oldric de Portal. His name and title was Louis (or Jean Francois?) de Portal, Sieur de la Portaliere; he with his wife (née Jeanne de la Porte) and a numerous family were living peacefully' and patriarchally at the chateau of La Portaliere, near St. Hippolyte, in the Cevennes. In October, Monsieur Saint Ruth, at the head of regiments of dragoons, made a descent upon the defenceless neighbourhood, set fire to the chateau, and razed it to the ground. In their retreat, Portal, his wife, and their youngest child were massacred. The fifth son, Pierre, fainted at the door of a baker’s shop, at Montauban, and being succoured by the benevolent shopkeeper, he lived to found a family in France, which, amidst gross oppression, remained true to Protestantism.[2] The eldest son, and one daughter, found their way to Brandenburg. Two other sons, Henry and William, and a daughter, reached Bordeaux. The captain of a merchant vessel admitted them on board, hid them in empty hogsheads, and brought them safe to Holland. It is said that they, in point of time, narrowly escaped death by suffocation. For the French Government, enraged at the habit of stowing away fugitive Protestants in cargoes, soon afterwards gave orders to fumigate departing vessels with a deadly gas. “On se servait d’une composition qui, lorsqu’on y mettait le feu, developpait une odeur mortelle dans tous les recoins du navire, de sorte que, en le respirant, ceux qui s’etaient cachés trouvaient une morte certaine.”[3] Henry and William landed in England with the Prince of Orange in 1688.
The motto of the De Portals, “Armet nos ultio regum,” was granted to Raymond de Portal in 1336 by Charles V. of France, in honour of his having been one of the four hundred knights of Toulouse who volunteered to accompany Bertrand du Gueschlin, on his expedition into Spain to avenge the death of the sister of the Queen of France, Blanche of Bourbon, Queen of Castile. Had this family desired to resent the ingratitude of the Bourbon kings to themselves and the other loyal Huguenots, they might have assumed as a new motto, a naive aphorism which introduces one of the Chapters of the Portal Memoirs, “Le systeme d’intimidation eut peu de succès sur la famille de Portal.”
It may be asked, how can such a family be associated with the industrial class? The reply is this, they cheerfully became poor for conscience’ sake, and resorted to industry to earn a livelihood. Henry Portal devoted himself to manufactures, and having invented a peculiar fabric of paper, he obtained the privilege of making the Notes of the Bank of England, which his descendants inherited. His paper-mill was in Hampshire; the mill was at Laverstoke; his residence was Freefolk Priors. The wheel of his mill was turned by the river Itchen, on which Cobbett (in his “Rural Rides”) waxes eloquent, as “that stream which turns the mill of Squire Portal, which mill makes the Bank of England note-paper.”
“Talk of the Thames and the Hudson with their forests of masts; talk of the Nile and the Delawar bearing the food of millions on their bosoms; talk of the Rio de la Plata and the other rivers, their beds pebbled with silver and gold and diamonds; what, as to their effect on the condition of mankind — as to the virtues, the vices, the enjoyments, and the sufferings of men — what are all these rivers put together, compared with the river at Whitchurch, which a man of three-score may jump across dryshod?”
I have found it interesting to follow out the history of the noble refugee’s paper-mill. He died 30th September 1745. He had, along with the mill, the estates of Freefolk Priors, Laverstoke, and Ash, all in Hampshire. The whole (subject to portions for his four daughters) became the property of his only son, Joseph Portal, Esq. of Freefolk Priors, who enjoyed his inheritance for forty-eight years, dying on 14th December 1793.
Joseph Portal’s eldest son, Harry, had gone into the army, and William had become a barrister in the Inner Temple. His special favour seems therefore to have been reserved for his third son, John, who became the squire of Freefolk Priors, and also had the celebrated paper-mill as part of the paternal bequest. His will is thus expressed:—
“I give and devise all those my Mills called Laverstoke Mills, with all the houses and gardens to the same belonging and adjoining, now in the several occupations of the several persons working at or belonging to the said Mills, with the Mill-Heads and the piece of ground lying between the two Mill-Heads, and the entire use of the River and stream of water for working the said Mills, in the same manner as I have for many years past held and enjoyed the same: and also my Mill, called Bear Mill, in Freefolk-Syfreewast, with the houses, barns, stables, orchards, gardens, and plot of ground belonging thereto, and now in the possession of the paper-makers and others, my servants, all within the gate or opposite to the cottages late Edwards’s, together with their and every of their appurts, unto my son John Portal and his assigns for the term of 99 years, if he and my sons Harry and William, or he and either of them, or he and the heirs-male of the bodies or body of them my said sons, Harrv and William or of either of them, shall so long live and continue, he the said John Portal and his assigns yielding and paying therefore, yearly and every year, by two equal half-yearly payments, unto the person or persons who shall or may, for the time being, under and by virtue of the limitations hereinafter contained, be entitled to the reversion, freehold, or inheritance of the same mills and other hereditaments, comprised in the said term of 99 years, expectant on the termination thereof, the yearly rent and sum of £150 of the lawful money of Great Britain, free and clear from all rates, taxes, charges, and deductions whatsoever, and also keeping the said mills, and other hereditaments and every part thereof, in good tenantable repair and condition at all times during the said term, and so leaving the same at the end thereof.
“I give and bequeath unto my said John all and singular my implements, utensils, and stock in trade, and all my husbandry and fanning implements and utensils of every sort and kind, and all debts which shall be due and owing to me at the time of my decease in or account of my said trade and farming business respectively, but subject to the payment of all debts due and owing from me in or account of the same trade and business respectively. And I give my said son John all and singular my plate, linen, china, books, pictures, hold goods, and household furniture, horses, carts and carriages, with the harness and tackling thereunto belonging, not hereinbefore otherwise bequeathed or disposed of (and subject to my wife’s having the use and enjoyment of such parts thereof as are hereinbefore specified, for the space of one year after my decease).”
Mr John Portal possessed the mills for fifty-five years, that is to say, until his death in 1848. He had succeeded to Laverstoke and Ash in 1846, on the death of his good and learned brother William, but he did not change his designation ; he made his will on 27th January 1848 as “John Portal of Freefolk Priors, in the County of Southampton, Esquire.” In 1843 he had taken power to bequeath the mills to whomsoever he pleased for the term of eighty years after the day of his decease. In the requisite parchment or indenture the mill property had been thus described:—
“All those Paper Mills called Laverstock Mills with the dwelling houses, cottages, gardens, yards, outlets, warehouses, drying rooms, and other buildings to the same belonging, together with all the millheads and the piece of ground lying between the two millheads, and the entire use of the rivers and streams of water for working the said mills — all which mills, dwelling houses, cottages, and premises contain 3 acres, 1 rood, and 18 perches, and are situated in the parish of Laverstock, on the north side of the turnpike road leading from Basingstoke to Andover. And also those several cottages or tenements, and gardens or plots of ground thereunto belonging, situate on the south side of the said turnpike road and immediately opposite the said mills and dwelling houses, containing together 3 roods and 24 perches, and then and now occupied by the workmen employed at the said mills, and lying in the respective parishes of Laverstock and Syfreewast.”
His Will accordingly declares:—
“Now I the said John Portal do by this my Will direct, limit, and appoint, give and devise all and singular the said mills called Laverstock Mills, &c, unto and to the use of my son Wyndham Spencer Portal, his executors, administrators, and assigns for the term of 80 years, to commence and be computed from the day of my decease [7 May 1848]. . . . I bequeath to my said son all that my business of a Paper-Maker by me carried on upon the said premises, and the good-will thereof, with all fixtures, machinery, articles, stock, and implements by me used and employed therein. I bequeath unto my said son all debts due and owing to me at the time of my decease from the Bank of England, or any person or persons whomsoever for or in respect of the said business of a paper manufacturer, subject to his paying thereout all debts whatsoever which shall be due and owing from me for or in respect of the same business.”
Under Mr. Wyndham Spencer Portal, the manufacture of the bank-note paper with the new water mark began, and the mills have been remodelled and enlarged in the most admirable manner, the only monument of refugee days, except the surname of Portal having been pictured thus:—
“The artizans and work-people live in neat and picturesque cottages adjoining the premises, and are occupants of the same dwellings formerly tenanted by their great-grand-fathers.”
This quotation is from the Illustrated London News; and from the Numbers of that journal for 30th December 1854 and 6th January 1855, I condense the following description:—
The Bank-note Mills, the property of Mr. Wyndham Portal, are situated in the parish of Laverstoke, in Hampshire, in the picturesque valley of the Test. This is a limpid stream, rising about three miles above the mills, thence running by Stockbridge, it flows through Lord Palmerston’s property at Broadlands, and finally discharges itself into the Southampton Water. The first Bank-note paper ever issued was made in these mills in or about the year 1719, and it has ever since been produced on the same premises. The water of the river is well adapted to such a paper-mill as the Bank of England requires, as a recent analysis has confirmed. The entire mill has been undergoing alterations, in order to adapt it to the perfect production of the paper used for the new Bank-note, which is to be issued on New Year’s Day 1855. The new buildings, in which the unique machinery is placed, were erected under the superintendence of Mr. Hellyer of the Isle of Wight, architect, who has effectively provided for light, ventilation, and the comfort of the workmen, and has also succeeded in pleasing the eye with the beauty and chasteness of his designs. Although Mr. Portal’s engineers (Messrs. Donkin & Co., of Bermondsey) have constructed machinery of the most improved character and on an extensive scale, upwards of eighty persons are kept in constant employment. The quality and watermark of the Bank-note paper have been brought to a high degree of excellence. The moulds from which the paper is made are the outcome of an invention, patented by Mr. Brewer and Mr. Smith, which was rewarded by a medal at the great Exhibition of 1851. The whole of the Bank of England’s valuable patent process for the manufacture of the new watermark is (in 1855) executed in the premises of the Bank in London, by Mr. John Smith of the Engineering Department, under the superintendence of Mr. Hensman, the Engineer-in-Chief. By the latter it is transmitted to Mr. V. S. Portal, at the mill, when Mr. W. Brewer places the different portions together on the mould frames, superintending any repairs, &c, that may be necessary. About 50,000 notes are made daily.
On 20th December 1854, before the Society of Arts in London, Mr. Alfred Smee, F.R.S., Author of “Elements of Electro-Metallurgy,” read a paper “On the New Bank of England Note, and the substitution of surface printing by electro-type for copper-plate printing.” He incidentally mentions that the Bank has twelve sets of notes, namely, for London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Leicester, Bristol, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Hull, and Swansea. There are thus sixty-six kinds of Bank of England notes, and 9,000,000 (equal to nearly £300,000,000) are issued in a year. In the manufacture of the paper every sheet must be accounted for, and it is a felony to manufacture paper like it. All kinds of precautions, in the way of counting and accounting, are used on the arrival of the paper in London, on its being stored, on its being delivered to the printer, and on its actual conversion into bank-notes. Each note circulates under the protection of the laws, “When a note returns to the Bank in Threadneedle Street, it dies.” “The registry of its death is taken by a system devised by my brother, Mr. William Smee.” “After the death has been registered, the note is deposited in the vaults for reference, for ten years, when it is burnt.”
- ↑ Bulletin, vol. viii., p. 2.
- ↑ The celebrated Pierre Barthelemy de Portal (born in 1765), the French Minister of State, Chevalier and Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, and Baron de Portal (from 1815) was the grandson of the little boy who owed his life to the baker. His eldest son, Pierre Paul Frederic, 2d Baron de Portal (born 1804), is the head of the French family.
- ↑ Koyer, La Colonie Francaise en Prusse, p. 153, quoted by Smiles.